Lecturers could do a much better job in facilitating online communities.
When you register for a course, you also register for a private online community. In this community are your fellow students, former students of the course, your lecturers and any guest speakers.
Suddenly, it’s much easier to get help from others. You can see what previous students discuss have discussed. It would probably help to be able to read through frequently asked questions and responses from the previous year. You can compare notes, discuss ideas. You can do what many students are already doing in private Facebook groups already.
Not only does it build bonds between students, it decreases the barrier to communication and provides an increasingly invaluable asset for the university. All the best wisdom from previous students in one place.
Also, if crowd accelerated innovation is true, by being able to see what previous students have done – the following year’s students should be able to improve upon this. In addition, lecturers should continually be able to raise their game and turn out increasingly better students.
